North West Got Her Hair Straightened and Now Kim Kardashian West Is Getting Flack for It

As usual, North West served up a major look this week, but this one has the Internet completely divided. The controversy stems from the sporty ensemble North wore on Thursday, the day before her fifth birthday. During an outing to Dylan's Candy Bar in New York City, alongside a friend, her mom Kim Kardashian West, and Jonathan Cheban, North wore a hot pink Adidas windbreaker and matching shorts, white Yeezy sneakers, a candy choker necklace, a unicorn purse, and her long hair straightened and slicked back into a high ponytail with a single braid down her middle part, Elle U.K. reports.

As the pictures made their way across the Internet on Thursday, many people took issue with North's pin-straight hair, criticizing Kardashian West, a white woman, for straightening her half-black daughter's natural curls. They expressed their disapproval on Twitter, where one wrote, "Y'all.... Kim really straightened out her baby's hair. That's sad, what is she like 6? Leave her natural hair alone."

Others, however, came to Kardashian West's defense. While some suggested that North herself — a budding style icon who has been known to design her own clothes and do her famous family members' makeup — may have requested the hairstyle as a birthday style switch-up, others maintained that the haters have no right to criticize Kardashian West (or any other parent for that matter) for how she raises her children. Still, others pointed out that North is far from the only child to ever have her curls straightened and assured worried onlookers that her curl pattern will likely be fine.

For her part, Kardashian West has previously expressed her desire to help North embrace her natural texture. In a 2016 episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, the mom of three took braiding lessons so she could learn how to style and take better care of North's hair.

For the September 2017 issue of Interview magazine, in which she appeared alongside North in a Jackie O–inspired shoot, Kardashian West spoke about how "important" it was to her that North had people around her with natural hair and learned to love her texture. "She's obsessed with her curly hair, and if she finds someone who has the same hair, she runs to them and is like, 'You have curly hair like me?' And we get to talk about it. We also talk about it with my niece Penelope, because she and North look really different, but they're best friends and they're together all the time."